Many residents of Veliky Novgorod executed Ivan the terrible

Favorites 02/03/20 Public DomainСколько residents of Veliky Novgorod executed Ivan the terrible

In Russian history a lot of dark spots, which “clarified” only hypotheses, and sometimes the fantasies of historians. Apart here is the massacre of Novgorod by the guardsmen, which began on 12 January 1570. It belongs to the most severe acts of Ivan IV.

Walker from Volhynia

in the Summer of 1569 Tsar Ivan IV takes the Alexandrov Sloboda of a “Walker” from Veliky Novgorod, which the archives will be held as “Volynets (that is, Ukrainian, Ed.) Peter.” The mysterious visitor informs the king that the Novgorod elite, led by the local Archbishop Pimen colluded with “Lithuania” and is secretly preparing to swear allegiance to the “Lithuanian king Sigismund” (Sigismund). There is even evidence – a certificate signed by the Archbishop and other nobles of Novgorod, which is stored in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral under the image of the virgin.

Soon John IV secretly sends to Novgorod agents that produce the incriminating document and deliver it to the king. The signature of the Archbishop, who was reputed to be, a fervent supporter of the king, recognized as genuine, and it becomes the starting point for the famous hike the terrible in Novgorod the Great.

Most historians claim that the informer expertly forged signature on the letter. Yes, so fake that at the subsequent “confrontation” with the document most of the signatories acknowledged their autographs. However, no evidence of fraud “Volynets” no historian and is not.

the Fatal blessing

At the end of 1569 the king oprichnina army go. On the way to “grad rebellious,” John sends his loyal Malyuta Skuratov in the assumption Otroch monastery in Tver, where he was once a former prison, Sana Metropolitan of Moscow Philip. Interestingly, Archbishop Pimen, which was going to “visit” Ivan, was at the time the main opponent PhilAPCI and put a lot of effort to his deposition.

According to one version, the king sent Skuratov to the disgraced monk to ask the blessing of the Novgorod campaign. But supposedly Philip refused Malyuta in the “parting word”, and he suffocated him with a pillow. Other monks killer reported that a former Metropolitan died from lack of air.

This episode is described in the life of Philip, which appeared a hundred years after his death. However, until that time, no written evidence of the violent death of Philip was not preserved. The question arises – why the terrible had the blessing of disgraced monk whom he believed a “sorcerer” and some time ago wanted to burn at the stake, if you believe the sources? Is not fateful visit to Malyuta to the disgraced Bogomolets later “interpretation” of the drafters of life?

the Rejected blessing

so, in early January oprichnina army entered Novgorod. On the bridge across the Volkhov the king met the Archbishop Pimen and the best people of the city. But the king ignored the Bishop’s blessing, refusing to cling to the cross, but instead erupted with accusations:

“You’re not a shepherd, but a wolf is a predator and destroyer, and in the hands of you do not cross, and the weapons, and you wrongdoing, I want together with their peers to pass the Great Novgorod to the Polish king.”

the Words of the king, logically, was to be the signal for the arrest of Pimen. But then, according to the chronicle “the tale of the defeat of Novgorod the Great”, which is the major source of the Novgorod events, something strange is happening: John is sent on a solemn Liturgy at Saint Sophia Cathedral, and serves the Liturgy itself is a traitor! And then the terrible retinue sent along with Pimen, the Archbishop’s residence for a luncheon.

And just after the meal John again accused the Bishop of treason, and, finally, arrest. The script, frankly, paradoxical, even for such a “creative Director” as the Tsar Ivan Vasilievich. But in the chronicle story misses the point – admitted if the PIMn treason or not? Signature something (or fake) in the “breakaway” to read and write was his.

Of the archbishops in the clowns

Then the Archbishop was subjected to a very strange and humiliating ceremony. Ivan allegedly announced that Pimen should be not a Bishop, a buffoon, and therefore he should marry. Spouse for the unfortunate Bishop Ivan Vasilyevich was already prepared: she was an ordinary Mare! The king ordered that Pimen was put on the “bride” in hand, he was given the drums with the harp, and sent with a message to join the gang of buffoons.

Historians interpretiruya this ceremony as blasphemous desecration of the Archbishop and on the Easter symbolism of the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. The rite really is a bit sleazy, even for Ivan, who, as you know, was very strong in symbolism. And here the symbolism is kind of “dead”.

the terrible, in all its submissions, has always acted in the context of the Russian tradition. However, the rite of marriage on a horse and “harness in the clowns” in folklore we can find. But similar performances are in the West European carnival tradition, but it’s hardly terrible he could be the expert.

Clarity comes when we learn the name of the person who witnessed this ritual. German albert Schlichting, who was in the service in the oprichnina (with a very muddy “staffing”). According to his biography (it is compiled), in the spring of 1570, he “was discharged” and went to the Commonwealth, and there is already, under the shadow of the Polish “Russophiles”, wrote a memoir “news from Muscovy, reported nobleman albert Schlichting on the life and reign of the Tsar Ivan.” It is curious that the name albert Schlichting in Russian documents of that time does not exist.

last judgment

According to “Stories of the defeat of Novgorod the Great”, immediately after luncheon at the residence of Pimen and his arrest began the “confiscation” of the property Hagia Sophia and some of the monasteries , and then “cannibalization” spread to the restOh the city. The looting was accompanied, according to the chroniclers and “witnesses” (German “henchmen” Staden and Schlichting), unprecedented terror.

the descriptions of the sophisticated executions of Novgorod probably would have envied the Marquis de Sade while writing his novel “the 120 days of Sodom”. The impression that every day the guardsmen were killed at least several thousand people.

With the counting of victims of Novgorod massacre controversy is still not over: some say that killed at least 15 thousand people (half the population of Veliky Novgorod), others stay for 4-6 thousand.

But historians why-that are silent, that any executions were preceded by court proceedings. The court guardsmen were functioning in the Novgorod Settlement within three weeks. Even at the maximum forced paperwork oprichnina judges were hardly able to consider more than 30 cases. It is not necessary to forget that in each individual case, conducted the investigation. The remaining indirect documents, Church commemoration, the death penalty has been about 200 noblemen and more than 100 households, 45 clerks and clerks and as many members of their families.

how should historians take the numbers of 15 thousand executed? In the Chronicles as evidence says about the discovered mass graves of several thousand people about surfaced in the spring hundreds of corpses in Volkhov, etc. But are all these poor victims of terror?

the fact that 1568 and 1569 years were lean in the Novgorod land, broke out a famine the price of bread has increased by the beginning of 1570 by almost 10 times. The Livonian war, which undermined the economy of Novgorod, violating previous trade ties, only aggravated the situation. And soon came another and the plague.

According to the testimony of the Swedish Ambassador Pavel Justina, located in Veliky Novgorod from September to January, the city long before the “massacre” was a “crypt” – every day from hunger was dying a few hundred residents.

If you look carefully at the existing evidence, the “revision” in most cases were subjected to the Church farm. It was at the monasteries and monastic villages was the confiscation of bread, of cattle, of salt. Probably the “pogrom” was largely due to the fact that in terms of hunger and catastrophic growth of prices for bread, Novgorod Church has accumulated the lion’s share of the reserves. It is possible that such “blockade” was part of a larger strategic intent of the local elite.

was there a betrayal?

it is possible that in these circumstances, the Novgorod elite had a desire to seek salvation in joining the Union of Lublin, which was created in 1569 by the Union of Poland and Lithuania.

the Novgorod trade was not profitable terrible policy, including his desire to break through to the Baltic sea, threatening a loss once one of the mightiest cities of Europe, their geo-economic positions. Moreover, Novgorod is not very satisfied with the orientation of the king of England.

the British have the greatest preference of John IV and opened alternative Novgorod Meridian – Kholmogory – Vologda – Moscow.

In turn, the British also didn’t like “Novgorod” Corporation, which was once part of the rival Hanseatic League, and at the end of 1560 years, which opened the city to the main rivals of the British on the Russian market – the Dutch. This suggests that the Novgorod campaign could not be some paranoid improvisation of Ivan the terrible.

Missing document

From the time of Karamzin, Russian historiography has taken a tough stance in assessing the historical role of Ivan IV. Moreover, the deadlier became the position of the historians, the less was the state papers of the era is terrible.

So, in the early nineteenth century mysteriously disappeared from the state archive materials of the “detective business” to “of Novgorod of treason”, which would be better to just clarify for us the events of January 1570. Probably one of the last people who worked with them was Nikolai Karamzin, who in 1811 became immersed in the performance of public procurement – writing the “History Of The Russian State”.

Apparently, these documents were read by Catherine II. In his notes on the Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” the Empress wrote about the foolishness of Radishchev, singing of the Novgorod Republic

“Speaking of Novgorod, about a free its Board and on the severity of the Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, not talking about the cause of this penalty, and the reason was that Novgorod, taking the Union, surrendered to the Polish Republic, so the king executed apostates and traitors, than the truth to say action not found.”

Modern historians are less fortunate than Catherine the great, and Karamzin. The main sources of Novgorod pogrom for them are very questionable, “the Story of the defeat of the Great Novgorod”, which was formed during the Swedish occupation of the city (1611-1617 years), the memoirs already referred to albert Schlichting and adventurer with a reputation Munchausen Heinrich Staden, once surfaced with her “Moscow memoirs,” in Holland, which supposedly was a former Oprichnik. However, no direct evidence of this has been preserved.

Russian Seven

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